Reviewing modern and classic pulp novels and anthologies. Hard copies only, we do not review digital books or files.

Wednesday, June 03, 2015

WHERE STORIES DWELL

WHERE STORIES DWELL

By I.A. Watson

Pro Se Press

204 pages

If you haven’t been paying close attention over the past few
years, then it might have escaped you that one of the leading voices in New
Pulp Fiction these days is British writer, I.A. Watson.We can confirm that easily enough by telling
you in the past ten years he’s won two of the coveted Pulp Factory Awards for
Best Short Story.The first was for a
Sherlock Holmes story and the second for frontier adventure featuring the
characters from James Fennimore Cooper’s “Last of the Mohicans.”

Now that bit of information leads us into this particular
volume which is a pure reading light.You see those Pulp Factory Awards I just mentioned are given out by the
internet group on Yahoo called the Pulp Factory; an informal group of New Pulp
writers, artists, editors, publisher and fans with a membership numbering
128.Watson has been a member since its
inception nearly ten years ago and he has used this particular internet board
to regale his fellow members with entertaining essays covering such a wide
range of topics it sometimes boggles the mind.Let anyone even hint at an odd tidbit found on-line and instantly Watson
is putting forth a two page dissertation on the subject, filled with insightful
commentary, humor and the most outlandish historical notes once could ever
imagine.

Watson’s Pulp Factory essays have rambled freely over such
topics as the birth of heroic fantasy and fairy tales; the legend of King
Arthur, heroes, the most powerful female monarch in history, how bad guys die,
the purpose of using chapters, the dead World War II hero, Hollywood’s
misunderstanding of pulps, etc. etc. etc.Just to name a few of the dozens between these pages.There’s even an essay explaining the genealogy
of British Kings which I confess still confuses me to no end.But what was crystal clear from the first
page to the last was just how much fun this book truly is.

And this is where, as a fellow publisher in the New Pulp
field, I humbly tip my hat to Tommy Hancock of Pro Se Press.While the rest of us were reading Watson’s
essays and enjoying them, it was Tommy who had the oh-so brilliant idea of
publishing them and producing this remarkable book.Oh, and if you are wise enough to pick up a
copy, there’s a challenge for you in the very cover by Jeff Hayes, which includes
an item related to every single essay in the book itself.Can you pick them all out?

“Where Stories Dwell,” is that rarest of books; on that both
amuses and informs at the same time by a writer I’ve come to believe is truly
the World’s Last Renaissance Man.